THEPERIODFROM1878T01891 87 



supported by developments in every branch of the service. It seems 

 that the prevailing idea running through this office and those sub- 

 ordinate to it, was that the Government had no distinctive rights to 

 be considered and no special interests to protect. "^^ Two years later 

 Sparks announced that he had "no word to recall that has hitherto 

 been uttered touching the aggravated misappropriations to which 

 the public lands have been subjected."^^ Secretary Teller, as has been 

 previously noted, seemed unduly favorable to the railroads. Not only 

 did he interpret the Right-of-Way Act with an unmistakable bias in 

 favor of the railroads, but it has been officially stated that in the case 

 of certain unearned grants, he worked the clerical force of the Land 

 Office over time during the last days of his administration to com- 

 plete the issue of patents before the new administration should enter.'* 



The administration of President Cleveland marks out a separate 

 period in the history of the public lands. President Hayes had called 

 for timber preservation as early as 1S78,''' but Cleveland was the first 

 president to take an active interest in the public lands, and an uncom- 

 promising stand for enforcement of the laws. His Secretary of the 

 Interior, L. Q. C. Lamar, was likewise favorable to law enforcement ; 

 but the great moving force in the department was Commissioner of the 

 Land Office William Sparks. 



Eight days after Sparks entered office, he issued an order suspend- 

 ing final action upon all entries on the public lands, with a few excep- 

 tions, in Dakota, Idaho, Utah, Washington, New Mexico, Montana, 

 Wyoming, Nevada, and parts of Kansas and Nebraska, and suspend- 

 ing all entries under the Timber and Stone Act without exception.*" 

 This was the beginning of his campaign against land and timber 

 thieves, and he followed it up consistently. Perhaps he was rather 

 too vigorous or too undiplomatic, or it may be that he was merely 



76 Report, Sec. of Int., 1885, 155. 



TT Report, Land Office, 1887, I. 



T8 Report, Sec, of Int., 1885, 43, 187-197. 



It is true that during Teller's administration a special division of the Land 

 Office was created to promote the prompt and effective disposition of cases in- 

 volving fraud, but whether this was the work of Teller or of his commissioner, 

 McFarland, does not appear. Commissioner McFarland evinced considerable inter- 

 est in the matter of forest preservation. {Report, Land Office, 1882, 11; 1883, 9.) 



79 Cong. Rec, Dec. 2, 1878, 6. 



80 Report, Land Office, 1885, 50: Report, Sec. of Int., 1889, XIX. 



